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A
pedestrian walks past a Bank of America banking branch in
Charlotte, North
Carolina October 13, 2011. (Credit: Reuters/Chris Keane)
|
(Reuters) -
A New Jersey man sued Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo on
Wednesday on behalf of ATM users, accusing the banks of colluding to fix the
fees they charge customers to withdraw money.
The
lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., is the third such suit
seeking class action status on the issue of automated teller machine fees in
the past week.
The latest
suit alleges the banks worked with Visa and MasterCard to set artificially high
rates on ATM fees.
The earlier
lawsuits were filed against Visa and MasterCard, Wednesday's lawsuit is directed
at both the card network firms and the banks.
Customers
who use ATMs not operated by their bank are often charged both by the operating
bank and by their own bank, as a "foreign ATM transaction" fee.
Successful
ATM operators need access to the Visa and MasterCard networks, since the vast
majority of debit cards are exclusive to them. Some cards can access alternate,
cheaper networks.
The
lawsuits accuse Visa and MasterCard of forcing ATM operators to charge the same
access fee to customers regardless of which network they use, in order to get
access to the Visa and MasterCard networks.
One of the
other lawsuits was filed by a group representing the operators of ATMs.
Wednesday's
lawsuit accused the banks, that collect the access fees, of colluding with Visa
and MasterCard in setting the transaction price.
A spokesman
for JPMorgan declined comment. Representatives for Bank of America and Wells
Fargo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is
Justin Genese v Visa, MasterCard and others, U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia, No. 11-01838.
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